Kawasaki Race Report

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A
brand-new racing series kicked off this weekend in Ft. Worth,Texas,
known as the K&N Filters presents BooKoo Arenacross Championship
Series Powered by Toyota. The tour is run by Advanstar’s Mike Kidd, the
founder of the AMA National Arenacross Series, who left Clear Channel
(to whom he sold his series in the 1990s) a little over a year ago. It
retains the format from years past, which features two mains per night,
but they were renamed 250 Pro and 450 Pro.

Rider turnout was very good, but spectator turnout was disappointing,
possibly due to a NASCAR race running nearby. There was no fee to sign
up to race, which was popular with riders. The show opening featured a
tribute to former arenacross champions Dennis Hawthorne, Jason
Langford, Robbie Reynard, Jimmy Gaddis, Buddy Antunez, and Josh Demuth.

Bradley Ripple won both 250 Pro mains (250Fs) on his Babbbit's KX250F and earned about $13,000 for the weekend

Arenacross
racing is always close, and this weekend was close enough that Josh
Woods, Shane Bess, and Tiger Lacey finished the weekend tied in points.
Woods was filling in for Brad Hagseth on Buddy Antunez’s Fun Center
Suzuki team. Hagseth hurt his leg on press day, so Woods drove all
night from Georgia with his K’s Motorsports/Maestro Suzuki RM-Z450 with
him (his supercross practice bike). Josh won both 450 mains with it.

Some new names turned up at Ft. Worth, most notably 17-year-old
privateer Dennis Jonon. Dennis won two heat races, one ahead of Shane
Bess and the other ahead of Josh Demuth. This was his first pro race in
the U.S. (he raced a Canadian arenacross the weekend before).

The start featured a kicker going into the first turn, which was all
sand. It looked a little sketchy but actually wasn’t, and the top
riders seemed to like it.

On
Friday night, Bradley Ripple, on a Team Babbitt Nexus Kawasaki, won the
first 250 main (250Fs) after a holeshot and a strong ride. His teammate
Josh Demuth worked his way through the pack for second, and Tommy
Hofmaster was third.

Friday’s 450 main was mayhem. Woods was leading on his Maestro RM-Z450
(with Fun Bike Center graphics), and Tiger Lacey was racing with Jeff
Willoh for second. Lacey passed Willoh for second, and Willoh was
trying to take it back by hitting a triple into a rhythm section.
Willoh slipped on the face of the jump, came up short, cased the
landing, and stalled in the middle of the track. Ripple ran into him,
Riley Kurosky was knocked to the ground, and the pile claimed Demuth as
well. The race was almost red-flagged, but officials kept it going.
Woods won, Lacey was second, Bess third.

Shane Bess (#102) and Josh Woods (#56) were teammates for a day on the Fun Center Suzuki team

Saturday’s
250 main looked a lot like Friday’s for Ripple. He turned another
holeshot into another win. Lacey was second and Bess third.

The Saturday 450 main wasn’t as crazy as Friday’s. Bess led the early
laps, with Woods right behind him. Woods was making up time in the
whoops on his RM-Z450, which was set up for supercross and working
really well. But Bess was leading and took his line, so Woods had to
make a pass somewhere else. When the two jumped into a tight 180-degree
turn, Woods went wide and dove in hard to cut Bess off. It was a pretty
aggressive move, but hey, that’s arenacross.

Woods
went on to win, Bess was second, and the hard-charging Lacey was third.
All three are tied for points at 65 each.

The BooKoo series moves on to St.
Charles, Missouri, for round 2 next weekend.